


Business Partners

by Starsofgallifrey



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: 3x19, Angry Oswald, Angst, Canon-Compliant, Choking, Cooperation, Holding Hands, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Nygmobblepot, Prison, Regret, cell bars, ed loves a neck, gay af, holding each other?, mention of isabella - Freeform, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 18:52:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10950621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starsofgallifrey/pseuds/Starsofgallifrey
Summary: Edward tries to persuade Oswald into working with him to get out of their cells. Oswald is hesitant and filled with rage, while Ed has trouble connecting to his own feelings.





	Business Partners

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on my friend Lucia's art! I'll post this fic on my blog @endless-nygmobblepot with the link to her art <3

“Are we going to talk?” Edward asks, his limbs slack against the bars. Oswald still had his hands circled around the grainy bars, staring through the gaps with eyes burning green, looking fully black in the dim light. Edward’s voice seems to falter him, and the corners of his lips twitch again.

 

It had been almost an hour since Oswald had been locked in the cell block with him.

 

“Oswald,” Ed whispers, taking one step forward. Oswald’s breath hitches, crazed, and his face moves closer against the bars, temples grazing the rusty sides. He hadn’t seen him like this since…the nights after he saved his life in the woods. All those months ago.  

 

Edward takes one more step forward, calculating the consequences. Oswald reaches out again, violently, and Ed allows himself to be grabbed by the fabric of his jumpsuit this time. Oswald pulls him forward with a strength Ed forgot he possessed.

 

“What are you going to do?” Ed challenges and Oswald stands on his tip toes so he’s nearly eye level with his former friend.  
  
“I’m going to kill you,” the words send chills down Ed’s spine but he holds his ground. Even with Oswald’s large fingers gathering up more fabric in his fist, and his eyes piercing him, he felt safe. Perhaps it was just the bars that gave him that security.

 

“Really?” Ed says. “I don’t believe that.”

 

This got the reaction he had been wanting. Oswald blinks for the first time since they made eye contact. Ed feels the grip on his suit loosen. “Y-yes.”

 

Ed carefully moves his own hand towards Oswald’s, and grazes his fingertips with his own. Oswald’s arm tenses, but somehow he allows Ed to take hold of his hand and raise it to his throat. “Go on then,” Ed says, his hand resting over Oswald when he finally feels his fingertips dig into his neck.

 

Oswald raises a second hand to his neck and squeezes. Ed gulps, feeling his Adam’s Apple struggle beneath the firm grasp. He had calculated his odds of survival well. There was a 99% chance Oswald wouldn’t actually kill him. Ed might pass out first and Oswald would stop immediately, or Oswald would give up all together. Despite the actions he had bestowed upon him, Ed knew this man well.

 

He didn’t want to kill Ed.

 

Ed felt his breathing pathway constrict as Oswald’s eyes flared with rage. Edward’s grip on the bars at his sides tightened as he could feel the purple bruises starting to form. His face turned pink, tips of his ears going red.

 

When he felt Oswald’s nails in his skin, his neck spasmed in his grasp, and he felt a spark of arousal rush down to his pelvis. Ed would be the first to admit his neck was a sensitive place on many levels. “ _Oswald_ ,” he mouthed the word, more as a plea and a mantra of relief rather than anything else.

 

He didn’t know how to feel about Oswald’s return, not at the moment. He had been angry at first but that had quickly translated into some form of relief he was unfamiliar with. Even now with the fingers wrapped around his throat, he felt relief.

 

Any second now Oswald would- and suddenly the sensation was gone -Edward blinked his eyes open not even realizing he had closed them in the first place.

 

Oswald had turned around, back slumped against the bars. “Don’t speak to me,” he commanded. His arms were crossed tightly against his chest. Ed took a moment to clear his throat and adapt to the bruising pain around his throat.

  
“You still want to kill me?”

  
“I will.”

 

“Didn’t seem like you could,” Ed responded.

 

“Then I’ll get someone else to kill you for me, just like I did for Isabelle.” Edward felt that jab like a strike to the chest, but he didn’t correct her name, and for some reason rage didn’t accumulate within him. Hearing her name- being taunted with it -no longer ailed him.

 

Isabella had almost been like a dream; what mattered was Oswald standing before him now, alive…and well. Oswald was tapping his foot, and Ed knew he only did that when he was anxious. Did he regret what he had just said? 

 

Ed wanted to reach out to him, perhaps apologize. Perhaps tell him he wasn’t sorry for what he did but he misses him. He couldn’t figure out what he wanted to say, so he opted to go for the first action that popped into his head.

 

He slid his arms through the bars, his heart beating fast instantly. He wrapped his arms around Oswald and pressed his nose into his shoulder. Oswald still smelled the same. Ed gained a massive amount of pleasure from hugging him again, feeling him alive in _his_ arms, knowing they could be on good terms. Technically they were even, even if Oswald didn’t see it that way.

 

Holding him was intoxicating for some reason, and his senses felt heightened. Ed had the strongest urge to press his face into Oswald’s neck but he buried it quickly when he started to respond.

 

Oswald tensed up entirely, and Ed noticed from where he rested on his best friend’s shoulders Oswald’s eyes growing into wide saucers. They sparkled and his cheeks filled with pink.

 

“I missed you,” Ed whispered.

 

“No you didn’t,” Oswald responds instinctively, though he sounded unsure.

 

“I did,” and it was true. Oswald allows them to stay like this for a while, eyelids fluttering shut. He was stealing the moment, capturing it in his memory, before he feels Oswald’s muscles tense again.

 

“Get off,” Oswald grumbled, violently removing himself from the grasp with thrashing arms. Ed gripped the bars as Oswald moved away. He cursed the bars separating them right now; he’d walk through them if he were strong enough.

 

“Let’s work together,” Edward whispers. It was quiet enough in the room to hear a pin drop and Oswald’s eyebrows twitched up as he gave him an incredulous look.

  
“ _What_?” he demanded.

 

“You and me, we work wonders together.”  Ed gulps when Oswald approaches the bars again with his nostrils flaring. The Riddler continued his thought. “We need to get out of here, and I know you want to leave. The best option here is civil cooperation.”  


Oswald snorts. “You can’t be serious.”

 

“Come on. The Riddler and the Penguin working together to break out of prison? That sounds like quite a big headline to me,” Edward says with a smirk reaching out a hand to brush Oswald’s shoulder.

  
“Of course all you’d care about is a headline,” Oswald says, hesitating before shrugging off Ed’s prodding hand.

 

“Are we really going to spend all of our time in here arguing? I would think you’d know better. You can punch me, hurt me, do whatever you want after we’re out. You can _kill_ me.” He gestures to himself, “Not that I think you will or would.”

 

“How _dare_ you assume what I’m capable of _Nygma_ -”

 

“I know your capabilities, trust me. I don’t underestimate them. But, I also know _Oswald_ , not just the Penguin.” Oswald didn’t respond and Ed leaned in closer through the gap of the bars. “If you really hated me you wouldn’t be talking to me to such an extent.”

 

Oswald’s face turned red in embarrassment. “You… _You’re_ the one who keeps talking, not the other way around.”

 

“Oswald, work with me. Just for now. Please.” Oswald swallows visibly, trying not to make eye contact with Ed. His arms are crossed and he’s just out of reach.

 

Edward makes the (possibly unwise) decision to extend his arm through the bars, gesturing for a handshake. Oswald stares at his hand for a minute, lips parting and closing. He’s considering it. And if he could keep Oswald at bay while they attempt to escape, that’s all Edward needed for the time being.

 

Oswald takes it, and instead of shaking it, Edwards runs his fingers over the soft ridges of Oswald’s knuckles and then intertwines their fingers, knowing Oswald would take it more intimately that way. Ed had a way of being persuasive, and it seemed even now his hold over Oswald was still prominent.

 

Oswald gazes at him, suddenly looking much more at ease than he had been five minutes beforehand. Ed tightens his grip in reassurance holding their connected gaze.

 

“We’ll get out of here. We’re partners, Oswald.”

 

“ _Business_ partners?” Oswald scoffs, eyes flickering to the floor. Their hands remained intertwined, and he could feel Oswald’s nails start to dig into the backside of his hand, leaving little crescent moon shaped marks.

 

“I’d prefer the term _partners in crime_ ,” Ed states.

 

Was that a smile from Oswald? His lips had twitched up at the curves. Ed smiles momentarily. “I promise you we’ll get out, Oswald. We’ll fix this…problem.” With that last part, he hadn’t exactly been referring to the prison cells.

 

“I hope so, Edward.”

 

Edward nods. They had to escape. They had to do it together.


End file.
